Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Steven and Sandra Schilpp stand yesterday in front of their home in Ross with children Nathaniel, 8; Hannah, 6; and Meghan, 3. The family bought their home there a year ago and the North Hills School District won a hefty increase on the home's assessed value. Click photo for larger image. Filing an appeal The appeal deadline for next year is Tuesday. Forms are available on Allegheny County's Web site.

Some recent home-buyers who thought they escaped a higher property assessment for 2006 are getting a big surprise: They have to file an appeal or they may find their assessment has been raised based on the purchase price of their home.

And they only have until Tuesday to file that appeal.

The situation affects a small number of homeowners who received the results of 2005 appeals filed by local school districts or municipalities after they received their "official" assessment notice from the county for 2006.

If the school district or municipality was successful in raising a property's assessment, the higher figure will apply for 2006 unless the home-owner appeals.

Since the last reassessment in 2002, about 11,000 property owners had their assessments challenged as too low by school districts and municipalities. The decisions on most of those appeals were rendered before the notices were mailed, but some, like that on the property owned by Steven Schilpp, of Ross, came later. Last year, Mr. Schilpp, 37, and his wife bought a four-bedroom house in Ross, hoping to keep their three children in the North Hills School District.

In August, the district appealed Mr. Schilpp's assessment based on the purchase price of the home. A few weeks ago, he learned that the district had won its appeal and his 2005 assessment jumped from $146,200 to $197,000, the home's sales price.

"It's confusing. I wasn't going to appeal, but now I will. I'll do it [today]," Mr. Schilpp said. "If they're not going to give you any notice, how are people like me going to know?"

Keith Blockton, appeals manager in the county Office of Property Assessment, said new letters for 2006 eventually will go out to homeowners who are just receiving appeal results from this year.

But those notices won't beat next week's appeal deadline.

Mr. Blockton said it is difficult to estimate how many homeowners are in the same position as Mr. Schilpp. The county heard about 9,000 appeals this year, and officials mailed results for most of those appeals before finalizing the 2006 assessment notices, which went out in November.

Property owners have already filed more than 10,000 appeals for next year, Mr. Blockton said.

But, because of the new base-year system, the county's Board of Property Assessment Appeals and Review hasn't decided how it will handle those appeals.

"We don't have a new methodology," said Jerry Y. Speer, the board's acting chairman. "We don't know how to proceed."

Douglas Bovard, an appraiser with The Property Company in Scott, yesterday asked the appeals board to extend its deadline, citing confusion around the new system. But Mr. Speer said only Allegheny County Council, not the board, has the power to set a new deadline.

Board members did agree to hold off on scheduling any appeals next year, except for a few leftovers from 2005.

Members are hoping to get more direction from a lawsuit being considered by Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr.

Two sets of homeowners have sued Allegheny County and are calling on Chief Executive Dan Onorato to release the results of a reassessment that was completed this year. Mr. Onorato has discarded those numbers.

Judge Wettick said it appeared that the base year system complies with state law, even if it isn't fair to homeowners with decreasing property values. He likely will not make a final decision for several months.

Michael Witherel, solicitor for the North Hills School District, said he plans to seek increases for more homes if the judge rules against the county.

"If [the base year] doesn't go through, we're going to be doing a lot more next year," he said.

The district only started appealing residential properties this year, when it filed about 400 appeals.

As a new home-buyer, Mr. Schilpp thinks he has been unfairly targeted. Several other homes on Timberlane Drive are identical to his -- two stories, four bedrooms, less than 2,000 square feet -- but have lower assessments.

One house has an assessment of $161,600, even though it was purchased last year for $215,000.

Mr. Witherel acknowledges that he missed some recent sales, but he still hopes to appeal their assessments if the county returns to a system that uses current market value.

"We made some mistakes. This is the first time we did it," he said.